One Month In: The UK Franchise Sector Reacts to the Burnham Government

Exactly one month after taking over as Britain’s 59th Prime Minister, the seventh in a decade and only the second Labour Prime Minister in as long, the BFA (British Franchise Association) asked its members for their thoughts on the new administration.

As the UK’s self-regulatory body for franchising since 1977, the association represents 350+ franchisors, advisors and suppliers and 2,000+ voluntary franchisees, across a myriad of sectors, from hospitality to home care, all affected differently by new taxes, rules and regulations.

Young people’s mental health support

Tessa Hawes, founder and CEO of Mindset Mentors Ltd and MiniMe Mindfulness® was heartened by the PM’s opening speech on the steps of Downing Street when he pledged to: ‘help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support, more mental health support.’ [1]

She responded: “We franchise children's mindset and wellbeing education into schools, nurseries and communities. For six years we've been making the same argument in every meeting: it is cheaper, kinder and far more effective to build a child's calm, confidence and resilience at five than to try to repair it at fifteen. So hearing a Prime Minister name children's mental health as a priority in his first week, and frame public services around prevention rather than crisis, matters to us. It shifts the starting point of the conversation.”

Social Care Reforms

On Wednesday 29 July the new PM gave a speech [2]saying that care workers should be the ‘best paid people in society, not the worst’, drawing on his own experience of his father going into care.

Lucy Campbell, CEO of domiciliary home care franchise Right at Home UK, who won European Franchisor of the Year[3] 2025 said: “Andy Burnham’s early focus on social care gives me cause for cautious optimism. For us, the real test will be whether that ambition translates into meaningful, properly funded reform. We all want care to offer valued and rewarding careers, but achieving that requires honest conversations about funding and the impact of additional costs on providers. It is vital that those conversations include the people receiving care, the workforce and the full range of organisations delivering it, including independent providers, franchise businesses and SMEs. If he continues to listen, works across party lines and brings the right people around the table, there is a real opportunity for this government to be a friend to social care and to the responsible businesses that underpin it.”

Zero Hours Contracts

The subject of banning zero hours contracts is not a new one, but one that the Prime Minister is determined to push through, despite his own Government’s Impact Assessment, which revealed that such a ban could cost UK employers between £350m to £2.9bn per year[4].

Some business owners say zero hours contracts offer flexibility and that the focus should not be on banning them but stopping bad employers using the contracts in the wrong way.

One of those people is Samantha Acton, director of cleaning franchise Domestic Angels, who recently won Cleaning Company of the Year 2026 [5] in the South West of England Prestige Awards and who was quoted in an article[6] about zero hours contracts in the Sunday Times last week.

Samantha is highly active in supporting women in business; alongside running her franchise she also volunteers for Savvitas[7] a think tank which works to impact lifelong development of women, from school students to board level and beyond, with a special emphasis on boosting women's global economic power.

‘Policy pile-up’

Commenting on the new Burnham Government Samantha said: “The last two years have brought us the policy pile-up. Massively expensive to adopt and implement, and simply too complicated for most micro and SME employers. That has included the introduction of Day One SSP, but without the safeguards and limitations other countries have applied to balance the risk. Instead, almost all of that risk has simply been transferred to employers.

“Now we have the Government's Zero Hours consultation. This is a great opportunity for the Burnham administration to recognise that micro and SME businesses actually exist by ditching this initiative and acknowledging that zero hours contracts are most often far from toxic. They frequently work in the interests of both employee and employer, with workers actively choosing them to honour caring and parenting commitments, and employers relying on them because they operate in customer service-driven sectors. The proposed policy tackles the symptoms, not the cause, of bad employers.”

Autumn Budget

She continues: “The Autumn Budget will be another opportunity for the Burnham administration to relieve the pressure created by suffocating tax thresholds and allow the micro and SME sector to breathe, grow the economy and naturally generate higher tax receipts. This spot of seemingly simple maths has seemed beyond recent Chancellors. Has Burnham appointed the right person who can finally do the sums, make the decisions and start relieving the cost of living crisis?  Will Burnham be the micro/SME people's friend or foe? Ask me again at Christmas.”

‘Not business friendly’

Other franchisors also took a negative view: “Fundamentally I do not believe the new government is business friendly. There will be higher taxes and wasted expenditure not addressing the structural change required to meet the future needs of the country” said Ronan McCool business development manager at cleaning franchise Total Clean, who recently won the Innovation Award at the 2026 Facilities Management Awards[8] for their MySiteOps technology.

‘Remain focused’

Whilst Niri Patel, managing director of fit20 UK, winner of the 2025 Fitness Franchise of the Year at the LUXlife Magazine Health, Beauty and Wellness Awards, took a more pragmatic approach: “My perspective is that as business leaders, our responsibility is to adapt and ensure growth regardless of the political climate. While a new administration may bring challenges and my instinct suggests a Burnham government could introduce higher taxation and be less business-friendly, we must remain focused on overcoming obstacles rather than being held back by them. Ultimately, entrepreneurs need to drive their businesses forward irrespective of external factors and avoid contributing to a negative narrative that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

All industries affected

Pip Wilkins QFP, CEO of the BFA, said: “The franchising sector is uniquely positioned as we cover all industries, so Government decisions can affect different franchisors in different ways, but across the board we are very much a ‘people industry’, so any changes that raise the cost of being an employer, are going to hurt. However, as an organisation based on ethics, we also champion fair employment rights so we hope, as Lucy and Samantha suggest, that the Government does thorough research into the proposed scrapping of zero hours contracts, to ensure employers are not punished so badly that running a business simply becomes untenable.”